ational firm Irwin Mitchell is preparing to scrap its cohort of litigation assistants in a restructure of the support staff network. A total of 58 staff were told this week they were potentially affected and were at risk of redundancy, although the majority are expected to be redeployed into other roles.

It is understood the decision to remove the litigation assistant role is not related to the Mazur judgment, which stated that unauthorised staff cannot conduct litigation even under supervision.

But the Gazette understands the development of AI for carrying out certain tasks has played a part in the restructure,